Have I eaten in a morgue? Google the death of fine dining and you’ll see a plethora of articles telling us it’s all over. The most recent funeral oration is that given by Jay Rayner, in the Guardian, where he refers to a survey which states that 70% of diners have turned against fine dining, linking to a headline in The […]
Tag Archives: fine dining
November
08
Maison Troigros Part I : The Hotel
posted by Nicky Richmond
I had wanted to stay in one of the Grand-Design-like futuristic pods at Les Cadoles, part of the Troigros empire, not half an hour away from the restaurant. But after the Fishermen’s Huts in Whitstable I was pushing my luck. We didn’t notice the large dent on the car door, nor the big scrape, or rather C […]
November
07
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. No fireworks.
posted by Nicky Richmond
I’d not thought much about Clare Smyth MBE, until Restaurant Gordon Ramsay won the ultimate accolade in The Good Food Guide this year. Ten out of ten. Top marks. But Clare is not a well-known TV chef or cookbook writer and her light has been firmly hidden behind the Ramsay bushel. If you’re wondering what she looks […]
September
25
Le Gavroche. Gorgeousness.
posted by Nicky Richmond
I’ve got history with Le Gavroche. Not only the setting for my first grown-up lunch as a newly-qualified lawyer it has also been a concluding dinner to a rather torrid but doomed romance; a poignant post-wedding dinner, with my late father (who had soufflé for starter and dessert), a slightly disappointing meal out with C […]
August
31
Rasoi. Spice at a price.
posted by Nicky Richmond
There is practically no time when C has refused an invitation to a meal involving curry. He doesn’t like Trishna (uncomfortable chairs, the noise, the fussiness), or Benares (the complexity, the expense) and in this, as in much else, we disagree. Funnily enough, I didn’t mention that there might be fussiness at Rasoi, the brainchild […]
August
11
Waterside Inn, Bray. A stately galleon on the Thames.
posted by Nicky Richmond
I’m not sure if you’re allowed to eat here under the age of 50. Other than Oslo Court, it’s the most oldie-friendly place I’ve been to in some time. I’d tried a number of times to get a reservation and it was only by actually turning up in person that I managed to get in […]
June
27
Marcus. Formerly formal, informally formal.
posted by Nicky Richmond
I used to go to that Marcus Wareing place in the Berkeley Hotel when it was a dead posh gaff, with its dark velvet walls and more waiters than you could shake a stick at, not that I’m in the business of shaking sticks at waiters. It was proper faine daining, with its two glittering […]
June
20
The Hind’s Head. Heston does homespun.
posted by Nicky Richmond
I was still on holiday, albeit not actually still abroad. There were cupboards to organise, so obviously my thoughts turned to food. And the sun was shining. A country pub, I was thinking, by the river perhaps. And when I say pub I was thinking beer-serving establishment only in the loosest possible sense. A sort of Hand and […]
March
09
The Five Fields. It’s complicated.
posted by Nicky Richmond
Below the radar for some time, it’s suddenly on everyone’s wish list. That may be because it’s awfully hard to get a table. Only 40 covers and not that many sittings, it’s not a last minute sort of place .The chef-owner is the wonderfully-named Taylor Bonnyman, previously chef at Corton, in New York, the executive […]
January
31
Per Se. Of itself.
posted by Nicky Richmond
Per Se? It’s Latin, obviously. Meaning by itself or of itself. You knew that. I’m trying to work out whether I really did. Of itself. Like nothing else. They are, of course, talking about the food. Americans. They like to sell. And here, I’m buying it. Per Se is a legend. Three Michelin stars and […]
The Food Judge 